


All Strength, No Pain

by Reysagents



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Tragedy, Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Hurt, Major Character Injury, Pain, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Reylo - Freeform, Star Wars References, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24246241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reysagents/pseuds/Reysagents
Summary: Rey is used as a bargaining chip in a coup created by General Hux to destroy Kylo Ren and take over as Supreme Leader. Chaos and pain ensue.
Relationships: Ben - Relationship, Kylo Ren & Rey, Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	All Strength, No Pain

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really hoping this is reylo fit 20,000 in the tag! posting this as of right now its at 19999 <3

General Hux paced up and down a dimly lit corridor of the Supremacy. He was waiting; going over every intricate plan he’d made for the past year in his mind. He knew the plot by heart, but fearing he would have a moment of hesitation- or weakness- he went over it again. His face was stuck in an almost permanent downturn these days. The plotting and planning was really getting to him. The secrets, the whispers behind closed doors, the unseen faction of Storm Troopers he’d recruited. Everything was always one second away from falling apart, until today. This was happening and it was happening now. The General smoothed his shirt, straightened his posture, and carried himself down the hall with dignity, as one does when everything is about to go according to plan. Once he reached the end of the hall, Hux opened the door leading to the sleek conference room where he was supposed to be having a meeting in private with Kylo Ren, but instead, stationed there were a dozen troopers. Twenty more lined any escape routes or back doors or forgotten hangars. Anywhere Ren thought he could escape, he’d better think again. 

He smiled eagerly to himself as he stood in front of the armed Troopers. This was the day General Hux became Supreme Leader. There was one part of his plan that was always up in the air though. If his squad wasn’t able to get their hands on one very important asset, the whole plan would be worthless. He could be executed for treason. He could always just kill Ren, but that’d take the fun out of it. He didn’t want Kylo to die, he wanted him to suffer. Barely two minutes later, the confirmation he needed to proceed came through to him. The asset was in custody, being dragged here at this very moment. He could almost hear the screams of terror and frustration coming from down the hall, but he dismissed it. Everything was as it should be. The plan was in motion. 

Kylo Ren walked down the shadowy hall towards the room where he was supposed to meet Hux. They were supposedly going over plans to locate the Resistance after their lucky escape on Crait, but there was a different feel in the air. A sort of ripple from somewhere far off. He thought about rescheduling the meeting because of this premonition, but decided against it. The feeling suffocated him in his helmet, but he tried not to let it get to him. Such things were not worries of Supreme Leaders. He didn’t care much for the General, Hux was weak and unwise. The notion of fear passed like a fleeting shadow as the doors parted for Ren and he entered the room. He stepped in and stood deathly still. There was Hux as he said he would be, but behind him were dozens of Troopers, guns at the ready, all aimed at him. He bit the inside of his cheek.

“What is this?” he said. Fury laced the edge of his monochromatic voice. How dare Hux lie to him, the Supreme Leader. Hux smiled an eerie smile. He didn’t show his teeth, just his lips pulled into an upturned line. The expression was unnatural and strange.

“How nice of you to join us, Ren,” the General answered, “How nice indeed.”

Kylo reached his hand out, begging the Force to aid him, but before he could grab a hold of the energy needed to crush Hux’s trachea, the Troopers immediately turned their guns to him. He released the man. Hux stumbled to the floor, but didn’t waste a second getting back on his feet. 

“Sorry, but you can’t do that anymore, traitor.” The General spit the words at him like poisonous venom. 

“Traitor?” Kylo said calmly. His serene movements were an illusion. His heart was beating out of his chest, his throat tightening after every word. Hux stared at Kylo in disdain. “Take that ridiculous thing off and look me in the eye.” Kylo complied. His mask was suffocating him. In as swift a motion he could muster with his trembling hands, he reached up to remove his mask. It came off with a mechanical rush of air and Kylo’s black hair tousled itself to where it fell above his shoulders. He felt freed and restricted at the same time.

“What lies have you told them?” Kylo demanded to know. 

“That’s just it, Ren,” Hux said. “I haven’t told them any lies at all. Every last thing is true and you know it. You lied to us all. You hid behind the Supreme Leader all these years just waiting for him to fall at the end of your blade, didn’t you? You waited so that you could rise up and take his place.” Kylo shifted his weight uncomfortably. “When you told me that the scavenger girl had murdered our Supreme Leader, I was shocked. Nothing you told me was adding up. This is a game to you. You’re pretending this is some puzzle. You wanted to finish it so bad, but you were missing the key pieces so you took them from other sets and tried to pass them off as if they fit and hoped that no one would notice.” Hux paused, drinking in the moment. “Well I noticed.” He glared at Kylo. “They didn’t match up. The picture was warped. Your plan was warped. You claimed that some barely trained girl defeated our Supreme Leader, you, and his guards?” He shook his head in mock amazement. “As I pondered this, I began to wonder why she was even here in the first place, but then I realized.” He paused, staring Kylo dead in the eye. “You brought her here, didn’t you?” 

Kylo didn’t dare move. Hux had hit the target dead center. Kylo glared at him like he wanted to cut him in half. He itched to grab the saber hanging from his belt. “I knew better than to trust your story, Ren,” Hux said nonchalantly as if it was a blatant fact. “I checked the security footage and you’ll never guess what I found.” Kylo eyed Hux warily. “You and the scavenger, considerably close, whispering about what was it? Turning?” Hux called to the Storm Troopers, “Bring the girl here.” The doors swung open and in the hands of the two Troopers was the scavenger; the last Jedi. 

Rey. 

She was in binders and her haw was bruised all the way down her neck. Kylo watched her as she struggled against the Troopers grip. Their eyes met and they shared a subtle look; one of understanding and of hurt. His eyes flashed across her face. Just below her cheekbone there was a diagonal cut that he could tell had bled a significant amount. Red stained the side of her face and her hair and continued down her neck. She had no doubt received the wound from a significant amount of struggle. Rey wasn’t one to go quietly and the proof marked her body all over. She was a fighter despite the chest pains and the blood stains. Hux glared at the two, taking note of the quiet look they shared with one another. It was almost as if they had expected this. 

That was impossible.

The Troopers dragged Rey over to Hux. They let her go at his side, but before she could even begin to think of an attack plan, she felt a circle of cool steel press against the back of her skull. Her blood ran cold. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, then reopened them. She would not be afraid. “We found her at one of the old Republic bases with what's left of the rebel scum,” Hux began. “She was trying to make a last ditch effort, I suppose.” Hux paused and let Kylo think his sentence over. The Supreme Leader’s brain was moving a mile a minute. He had so many things to worry about but in this exact moment all he could think about was the safety of the scavenger girl standing across from him. They shared another look. They both knew what was coming next. Her eyes betrayed her feelings. Hux stole a glance at the two before addressing Kylo, “It was you who murdered Supreme Leader Snoke. All to save this…” he paused and looked Rey up and down. The move made Kylo sick to his stomach. “...this girl.”

Rey couldn’t take it anymore, she spoke out in defense of Kylo, “No, he didn’t!” She yelled. “Ben didn’t kill Snoke, it was me!” She would defend him to no end, to her end, for no other reason other than it felt right. Hux looked at her angrily. This girl was proving to be a real nuisance. Everything he’d worked so hard for had been destroyed with her help. Rage boiled up inside of him.

He struck her. 

White hot pain raced across Rey’s cheek and spread into her head as the General’s hand collided with her already throbbing cheekbone. She gritted her teeth and stumbled backwards. She fell to her knees on the floor, holding her head in her hands. She would not let herself cry. Not yet. Not ever. But while she was still down, Hux yelled at her, “Silence, scavenger scum!” Kylo closed his eyes, his body ached with hurt. There was nothing he could do right now, but rest assured, as soon as he could, he would kill General Hux for all it was worth. “You didn't kill the Supreme Leader. He said cooly to Rey. “You couldn’t do it even if you trained for years. You don’t have it in you.” The verbal blow struck Rey in a place she hadn’t felt since Jakku, back when Unkar Plutt reminded her just how little he thought she was capable of. The next day she brought back three times what she had brought him the day he called her weak. She would have to muster that strength again. “I may not have the power to read thoughts, but I can see yours so clearly.” Hux spit the words at Rey.

He turned back to Kylo. “You know, at first, I couldn’t understand why you would turn your back on your master for her.” He paused, collecting his thoughts. “But ever since the incident in question, you’ve gone soft. You’ve become the very thing the Supreme Leader feared you were all along- weak. You’ve shown more compassion than I’ve ever witnessed from the great ‘Kylo Ren,’ but then it hit me…” Hux looked over his shoulder at Rey, still on her knees on the floor, then slid his eyes back over to Kylo. As the two men looked at each other, there was a strange look in Hux’s eyes, almost as if he knew exactly what the other man was thinking. “You care about her.”

Kylo’s breath hitched in his throat. Rey lifted her head from her hands to look up at him. Her hair framed her face in bloody whisps, but she didn’t notice. Tears stung the back of her eyes.

Time stood still.

“Do you deny it?” Hux asked. 

He locked eyes with her again, his heart pounding outside of his chest. “No,” Kylo said. Rey couldn't hold it in any longer. A single tear fell from her wet lashes before she could even stop it from coming. It cut a clean line in the fresh blood splattered across her cheek. 

“I get it now,” Hux said. “You were broken, beaten down, then this girl came along, am I wrong?” He sneered in Kylo’s direction. “You were at war with yourself, you didn’t know where to turn so you decided to run. You ran to the last shred of hope you had left; a girl who didn’t know you for your true nature. A lowly sand rat who only by chance was able to wield a lightsaber. You hoped that maybe she’d see the good in you, but you failed.” Everything he said was true. “You were lost and then she showed up. She probably told you that you weren’t alone, that there was still good in you. Maybe she even promised to help you turn. That’s right, Ren, I heard the audio from the elevator. I know everything.” He continued, “She scarred your face and your soul and somehow along the way you fell in love with her. Tell me I’m wrong.” He didn’t wait for an answer because he already knew he was right. Kylo just stared at Rey. She couldn’t meet his eyes.

Hux cut the two short. “On your knees, Ren.” Before he could even react, two Troopers forced him down to the ground. He didn’t resist, knowing that Rey would most likely pay the price for his mistakes. His head pounded from the tension. How could this have happened?

“As the new Supreme Leader,” Hux started in, “I charge you with treason-” He looked down his nose at Kylo on the ground before him and sneered, “-And sentence you to death.”

Rey cried out, “No!” Hux turned around to face her before acknowledging the white-masked men behind her. “Actually,” he said, looking her over with a raise of his eyebrow. “I think I’ll kill the girl first.” 

Kylo thrashed against the Troopers. “Hux, I’m the traitor, not her.” The pair made eye contact again. “She’s nobody. Leave her out of this.”

Hux just smiled. “Sorry, Ren, but you brought her into this mess out of your own foolish desires. She may be no one, but she’s someone to you.” Hux turned back to the troopers without a second glance at Kylo. “Kill her.”

They forced Rey to stand up, grabbing her by her underarms and hoisting her up with so much force that she cried out. Their armor cut against her and made her skin feel like it was on fire. The Trooper stood before her with a weapon she didn’t expect. Not a blaster, not an electrical staff, but a weapon of uncanny familiarity. 

Kylo’s lightsaber. 

She closed her eyes. This was the worst way to go. Struck down with the weapon that belonged to the man she had tried so desperately to save. A last painful reminder of her constant, crushing, overwhelming failure.

“Hux stop this!” Kylo cried. “It’s me you want, I promise. For the love of God, let her live!” Hux just turned away from him. The last Jedi and the last Skywalker locked eyes in silent communication one last time before the Trooper pressed the button to ignite the blade. Her face glowed in the dim red light as she waited bravely for her swift end. That’s when it hit her; searing pain in her abdomen. It was white hot and angry. A blow delivered at point blank range. She cried out in agony with every part of her being as the blade cut deeper into her stomach just below her ribcage. Kylo cried out and lunged for her before the troopers let him go. 

“Move out,” Hux said with a smile. The Trooper clicked the button of the saber off and Rey collapsed onto the floor. “I’ve decided to spare his life,” He said to the Troopers. “We’ll take care of him another day. Let Ren experience the girl’s last moments,” He left with a turn. The General didn’t look back, his deed was done. She was done. They were both done. As soon as everyone had filed out of the room, Kylo moved to Rey’s side. He knelt down next to where she had collapsed onto the floor and sobbed. His hand moved over her hair, comforting her as she screamed and writhed in pain. 

“God, Rey, this is all my fault,” His words caught on tears. Rey choked and coughed up blood. There was blood everywhere. Her tunic and surrounding skin was soaked with a deep crimson. 

“It wasn’t your fault,” she whispered through her groans of agony. Her breathing was labored and her yells pierced his ears as Kylo observed her. She was suffering. As many times as she told him it wasn’t his fault, he knew it was. This was all him. “I’ve always refused to believe that I’d end like this. I always thought that maybe I was special; that there was something more out there for me-” Rey trailed off, pain wracking her body. “-But somewhere deep down I always knew...there was nothing else.” she said before shutting her eyes. 

“Shh,” Kylo said. He laid down next to her, his clothes now blood-soaked. He cradled her head in his hands. She rested her cheek in his lap. He pressed a tearful kiss to her blazing hot forehead, his tears falling into her sweat and blood soaked hair. “Don’t say that. You were made for so much more than this.” 

“Ben,” she coughed. That name; he’d always loved when she had said it. Her voice was his favourite thing to hear the word on. “I was left for dead in a desert wasteland when I was a child and lived my life for nothing and no one up until just recently so don’t try to convince me that I am somehow special. I’m no one from nowhere.” She closed her eyes and took as deep of a breath as she could muster. Talking was painful. Breathing was painful. Everything was painful.

“Maybe to some people,” he paused, his voice barely above a whisper. “But not to me.” Rey peeked up at him, her lip barely turned upward into a smile before she shut her eyes again and let her head fall to the side. She was in unimaginable pain. The wound had already cauterized, but it was still a kill shot. It had gone through the ribs and up into who knows where. He hurt just looking at her. Kylo continued, “The Force has always been inside of you, it just took a while to awaken. I remember when I first met you, you were scared and unsure and didn’t know anything about the world around you, but now, you’re wielding a lightsaber and taking down armies and right now...” He looked down at her. “...You’re dying in my place.”

“I know I am.”

“You don’t deserve this.”

“I know.”

“I don’t deserve this.”

“Yes you do,” Rey said. Kylo looked at her, tear stained and stunned. “Because despite every bad thing you've ever done; every twisted lie, every person killed, every torture withstood, you still held on to the good. To the conflict. To the hope.” She said. “And that is worth dying for.” She smiled as much as she could. “You are worth dying for.” 

“But I shouldn’t be. I’m a monster. I should be the one taking this for you! You have so much left to do, to see, to experience! So many people left to love!”

“But I’ve already loved so much,” She said. “Enough for a thousand lifetimes.” 

“I get it,” he said. “The Resistance. Finn and Rose and the Pilot and even my own parents-”

She cut him off.

“And you.”

Their eyes locked. 

“What do you mean?” He asked. His hands shook. “After all I’ve done?”

“Yes, after all you’ve done. Finn and Han were there at the start, but it was you who was there during my darkest times. Even when we fought, I still knew you were close. It was you who told me I wasn’t alone, who convinced me that the unbalance inside me was worth something; that it wasn't something to be afraid of but something to use.” A tear slipped down the Supreme Leader’s scarred cheek. “I’ve learned that I really don’t like you, but I forgive you,” she smiled softly. “...Because I love you. You loved me in my darkest moments, when there was no one else left.” Rey looked around as best she could, she lifted up her hand that was covering her wound and began to cry again. “Kind of like right now.” 

A cold shudder moved through both their bodies. “Rey you can’t die like this,” he said. “There’s so much I need to tell you. You were made for so much more.” Ben cried even harder. “It’s not fair!” He weeped into his hands. The pain and suffering he’d endured all his life was finally showing itself in the most destructive way possible. Perhaps Snoke had been right all along- maybe he was a monster. Maybe he was foolish and weak. He had just found someone that truly did love him and now she was being brutally and violently snatched from his hands.

Maybe he really was alone

The thought tore him apart, but he still spoke to her despite the pain. “You were made for more,” he assured her. “More than tears, more than pain.” He had to stop and catch his breath. “More than THIS!” He yelled to the empty room.

“Please just let me go,” Rey whispered. “It’s okay. You don’t have to watch me go.”

“No. I’m staying. No matter what.”

“Ben-”

“No.” They lay in silence while Kylo was internally at war with himself. He wanted to tell her so much, but he was running out of time. And on top of that, he was afraid, but he chose to speak up and say what was on his mind and heart anyways. He knew this was his last chance. “Rey?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“I love you, fiercely.”

Unable to respond because of the pain, she just curled up into him. Her heartbeat was slow as he felt it against his own. Her actions told him everything he needed to know. She felt the same way. 

So there stayed, tangled up in each other. They stayed that way until eventually, the groaning had stopped.

But the crying had only begun. 

Ben cradled Rey in his arms, willing her not to die. She didn’t listen. She couldn’t have. She sobbed in his arms until the very end. She wasn’t ready to let go. He held her until her final breath. Until the world stopped.

Until his world fell apart. 

Piece by piece.

All around him.

There was sound, then all at once, there wasn’t anymore. There wasn’t anything anymore. There was only a sudden, painful stop, followed by a sudden, painful silence. He couldn’t breath, couldn’t speak, couldn't move. All he could do was sit and stare into the void. Everything seemed dark and empty, just like the body that lay across his lap. He wished he could say that she went peacefully; that she was strong up until the end; that she put up a fight. But that was far from the truth. She did put up a fight, but not one of bravado or of glory. It was a fight to reconcile the life she had not lived. The life she would never get to live. She had weeped up until her final moment, her breath cut short by the sobs that painfully racked her entire body. All he truly could say was that she died loved, and that was more than most people got. He always knew somewhere inside him that they would one day beautifully ruin each other, and that day was today. But it wasn’t beautiful, it was just painful, just like everything else. But that was the thing, her life was the polar opposite of her end. 

All strength. No pain. 

A fearsome last stand. 

A brilliant flash of light and splendor. 

That’s what she was.

And now, he had to be that, too.


End file.
